In this issue:

• Tip Corner: Using Functions - LB Native and Bill Jennings custom version
• Game Programming Tutorial, Session 4 - by Richard Ryles
• Emulating Round Buttons (Advanced) - by Ken Lewis, Sr. and Alyce Watson
• Rotating Objects in 2D-Space - by Tom Nally
• LB Workshop: Book Marks, a Review - by Eldron Gill
• Slide Puzzle - by Janet Terra
• Demos:
  • Using a Speech Synthesizer DLL - by Gordon Sweet
  • Email and Website Addresses - by Gordon Sweet
• Beginners Programming Series, Installment 7 - by Brad Moore
  • Part 1 -Windows, Dice and a Little Math Too...
  • Part 2 - Command Buttons and Events
  • Part 3 - Roll Those Bones
  • Appendix and Glossary
• Newsletter help
• Index

Notes from the Editor:

Thanks for spending some time with the February, 2004 issue of the Liberty Basic Newsletter. This has been a labor of love on the part of myself, Alyce Watson (who so generously formatted several of the initial articles, as well as the contributors. I am so thankful to the wonderful people who contribute content to the newsletter every month. You make the publication exciting and help to improve the community.

I really want to thank Alyce Watson, who is too humble to accept praise, yet much is in order. My family and I moved from the beautiful Oregon Coast to South Carolina at the end of December. It was a very traumatic and difficult relocation, and it drew my attention from Liberty Basic and other activities I enjoy. Alyce graciously stepped in and took the publication of the January issue and subsequently did the prep work on this issue, including a lot of formatting work. Thank you Alyce.

Contributing to this issue are Richard Ryles with session 4 of his famous Game Programming Tutorial. Chocked full of ideas, examples and techniques for your next game, this series is a must read for anyone serious about learning to write games.

My friend and co-publisher Thomas Nally weighs in again with another of his tremendous articles that stretch the limits of Liberty Basic (and my mind) using vector graphics - this time we are learning how to rotate objects in 2D space.

Emulating Round Buttons has never been easier with help from Ken Lewis, Sr. and Alyce Watson's techniques as demonstrated in a short program (which I recently annotated). The accompanying article contains excerpts from the Conforum's Liberty Basic Forum.

Janet Terra comes to us with a great article that reveals how to create your own bitmaps using LB, capture them and use them in your program. Using this technique she creates a slider puzzle using Liberty Basic. Thanks Janet for a great article and I hope we see many more.

No stranger to publishing, Eldron Gill presents a review of the Bookmark functionality that was added to Liberty Workshop with the release of version 3 (LBW is now in version 4), and how it has allowed him to become more efficient at writing code. Check out the article for more information.

Gordon Sweet from the United Kingdom is back with a couple more demos. Of particular interest to me was a program that features a speech synthesis DLL. He has also updated his Internet and Email listing program that provides quick clicks into Liberty Basic resources. With Internet costs sky high in the UK, this is one more way to save a bit of time and get where you want to go.

Bill Jennings of Newsletter Index and Contents fame has graciously allowed me to reprint his custom USING function along with the Tip Corner piece I wrote on the Liberty Basic USING function.

Rounding out the newsletter is yet another installment of the Beginners Programming Series written by yours truly. This time we extend our use of Windows and graphics and introduce Buttons. A short discussion on GUI programming in the Glossary is worth notice, as it contains a link to a great article on the internet about good GUI design.

It has been great putting this issue together, and I hope you enjoy it. Please take time to comment on what you liked, make mention of things that need changed and maybe make some suggestions about what you would like to see next. The main area for discussion of the newsletter is on the Conforums website at: [http://babek.info/libertybasicfiles/lbnews/]

Thanks - Brad Moore